In this issue, we have three poets from three different places of the world, Hussein Habasch is a Khurd poet, but displaced and live in Germany, Going around the world is a beautiful experience, but going as a displaced person is so painful. We can see such pain in his poetry. BILAL AL MASRI  belongs to LBANON, which is war hit country. Shafkat Aziz Hajam is from Kashmir, India, and brings a different test of poetry. RS

Hussein Habasch (Afrin, Kurdistan)

I will come soon to Havana!

I will soon come to Havana, Giselle
Do you want something from here?
Yes, I want a stone, a little stone, polished by the rivers and springs of your country!
A stone that resembles the sparkle of your eyes and the color of your heart
A stone I show off in front of the seaside balcony in Havana, and I tell it this is the poet’s stone and the astonishment of his imagination.
This is the poet’s stone and the meaning of his existence.
This is the poet’s stone, oh the crashing waves and happy fish.
This is the poet’s stone, oh the white foam and ships that sway like brides over clear waters.

Oh Giselle
Oh, my dear friend
You have opened many wounds in my heart without intending it!
Wounds that were dormant and I tried to put them in oblivion.
Deep wounds pressing on my heart and almost turning it into atoms from the intense pressure!
How can I bring you a stone from my country, when my country is annihilated every hour, every day, every month and every year and no one cares about that!
How can I bring it to you from my country, when this accursed exile for thirty years has perched like a heavy stone on my chest and suppresses my breath?
How can I bring it to you, my friend, and the impossible is impossible?!
But let me think a little and find a solution!
Yes, I will bring you a little stone, polished by the rivers and springs of exile!
A colored stone, I will take out from the Rhine like a pearl, and I will add another stone to it, polishing it with my heartbeat!
Yes, I will bring you a stone, it will feel the exile as I feel, but when it sits on your lap; it will be reassured and will ease the torment of exile in its soul and heart.

Oh Giselle
I forgot to tell you that my friend Bayan went to Kurdistan on vacation
I asked her to bring me a stone from my country, as you asked me.
A stone similar to the one I brought you from here
But not a stone polished by the rivers and springs of exile
Rather, it is polished by the rivers and springs of Kurdistan
A stone like the light of my eyes and the color of my heart.
A stone I will keep as a loyal friend
I trust it and it trusts me
A stone more precious than all precious stones
A stone that will accompany me in my exile forever!

Oh Giselle
I forgot to tell you as well
That I brought a stone from Havana
A stone polished by the rivers of your heart and its warm seas.
A stone, if I touch it, I will remember the sidewalks of Havana, stone by stone.
A stone with many freckles on its face and a mole on its chin

A stone that may have been a jewel that Jose Marti lost in order for the Kurdish poet to find it and bring it to his German exile.
A stone that will take its place next to the stone that my friend Bayan brought from Kurdistan
And both of them will comfort my long isolation and my eternal exile.

My uncle Hussein

When I was born,
my father named me after his older brother
Hussein – who was run over by a fast train
crossing the city of Aleppo at lightning speed!
Many were the stories about his death.
Someone said that he was desperate for life so desperate
that he flung his body under the wheels of the train.
Someone told of an ineffable divine force
forcefully pushing him towards the railway
while the train was crossing and what had to happen, happened.
Another story stated that he was pursuing a woman.
He had fallen so much in love with her
that he was blinded from seeing anything but her,
so, the train ran over him while he was pursuing the love of his heart,
who was at the other end of the railway.
Many were the sayings and the stories,
but the truth bright like the sun is that my uncle
Hussein was run over by a fast train
crossing the city of Aleppo at lightning speed,
and in that very moment his existence ended forever.
What I don’t understand is why every time I see a fast train,
I run to it, as if some mysterious magic
that I have no control over pushes me forcefully towards it.
Really why…?

I am sorry Mother!

It is me, Hussein Habasch. I am sorry mother, for the labor pains I caused you when I was born more than fifty years ago. I am sorry for the pain I have caused you for my twenty-five years of enforced absence from you. Oh mother, how can your tired heart bear all this pain? Where does all this patience come from? I am sorry, mother. I am sorry on behalf of your absent daughters and sons. Two exiled sons in Denmark, four others in Germany, a son in Istanbul, a daughter living on the edge of humanity in Aleppo after her home was occupied in Afrin, and another daughter living in refugee camps in al-Shahba after her home was also occupied in Afrin! And a big family, homeless in so many places. Mother, we, your exiled sons and daughters, sorry for all the pain we have caused and are still causing to you.

————-

Hussein Habasch is a poet from Afrin, Kurdistan. He currently lives in Bonn, Germany. Born in 1970 in Şiyê town. His poems have been translated into English, German, Spanish, French, Persian, Uzbek, Albanian, Russian, Romanian, Italian, Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovenian, Lithuanian, Vietnamese, Nepali, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tajik, Bengali, Turkish, Berber (Amazigh), Bosnian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Chinese, Greek, Mandarin (the language of Taiwan) and Tzotzil (the language of the Mayan peoples of Mexico), and has had his poetry published in a large number of international poetry anthologies, more than 150 anthologies. His books include: Drowning in Roses, Fugitives across Evros River, Higher than Desire and more Delicious than the Gazelle’s Flank, Delusions to Salim Barakat, A Flying Angel, No pasarán (in Spanish), Copaci Cu Chef (in Romanian), Dos Árboles and Tiempos de Guerra (in Spanish), Fever of Quince (in Kurdish), Peace for Afrin, peace for Kurdistan (in English and Spanish), The Red Snow (in Chinese), Dead arguing in the corridors (in Arabic) Drunken trees (in Kurdish), Boredom of a tired statue (in Kurdish), Flor del Espinillo (in Spanish) A Rose for the Heart of Life, selected Poems (in English) and Olvido (in Spanish). He participated in many international festivals of poetry including: Colombia, Nicaragua, France, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Germany, Romania, Lithuania, Morocco, Ecuador, El Salvador, Kosovo, Macedonia, Costa Rica, Slovenia, China, Taiwan, Cuba, Sweden, New York City, Sarajevo, Greece, Albania and Cyprus. Recipient of the Great Kurdish Poet Hamid Bedirkhan Award, awarded by the General Union of Kurdish Writers and Journalists. As well as the International “Bosnian Stećak” award for Poetry, awarded by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Writers Union. Bronze poetry award Aristotle from Naoussa international poetry festival in Greece.

BILAL AL MASRI – LBANON

Translation from Arabic: ANBA GAWI AND M.H MOHAMED
Edite by camilla reeve

A story

Like smoke dispersing
words distance themselves
as you and I return to being strangers –
two characters lost in a long story,
an endless one –
and the sad author,
uncertain of the way
that he should take.

Tears

Dogs run after the Moon.
Spinster cats miaow.
In the dead of night
poor mice hide
in the ear of an old woman
combing her grey hair
that falls like snowflakes
and melts like tears,
while there are people
wandering along the paths
crushing each other’s hearts.

Absence

As meetings with you became rare
I folded myself between the pages of a book
I went on my way,
gone and left the place

having forgotten I was sick

–
your absence pains me –
and I had forgotten
where I left the book.

Bilal Al-Masry is a Lebanese poet and playwright, born in 1974. His in Poetry: The Atm of Mirrors, published by Dar Al-Konouz Al-Adabi in Beirut 2004 Jasmine rose like bullets issued by Dar El Ghawoun Beirut 2012 As light as oil, issued by the Beirut Publications Company in 2014 Your names are many and our bread is little issued by Dar Al-Watan Today, Algeria, in 2020  (yashaq rasuh bihajar aldhikrayat) Published within the Ishraqat series of poetry
supervised and selected by the poet Adonis2024 – Poetry selections translated into French entitle “ave nui tu seras seul  TGL ebooks Publishing & TranslationLondon 2023  Poetry selections: Because of you London 2024
Among his theatrical works are "Tooret so I will not disappear," "A trip to Mars" "The boats", the screaming of the corpse winner of the prize for the best theatrical text within the activities of
the Sidi Kassem International Festival in Morocco. Of his fictional works, the walls are striking my shadow. Among his fictional works: The Walls Exposed to My Shadow, published by the Cairo Hallways Foundation, 2013 He participated in many international evenings and festivals in Lebanon and abroad Poetry Prize from China Certificat Poetry Collection Award of the 2023 "Zheng Nian Cup" National Literature Prize Shortlisted award–literature prize k m anthru international India 2022

Shafkat Aziz Hajam

HER LOVE

I . I lost my beauty for the harsh time of my youth,
Yearned to rare it for my name after demise,
She didn’t aid me to preserve my beauty.
She longed to preserve hers that would be mine too –
For this she did like me but alas ! my harsh time…..
I had to bear it alone ,
Her love was for my summer when fall reigned me .

THE LOST DREAM

The lost dream, I dreamt again ,
Couldn’t fulfil it, oh ! it caused pain .
Its beauty was not altered a bit ,
Not even my desire for it .
I dreamt it again but untimely .
I could only cry helplessly .
My cry and sigh it could hear,
Though it yearned , it wasn’t fair
For it to be the dream of mine again
As like me , him it would cause pain

Shafkat Aziz Hajam is from Kashmir (India) . He is a poet, reviewer and co-author. He is the author of one children poetry book titled as The cuckoo’s voice and one adults poetry book titled as The Unknown Wounded Heart.
His poems have appeared in international magazines,anthologies and journals like Inner Child Press International USA, AZAHAR anthology Spain, SAARC anthology, Litlight literary magazine Pakistan, PLOTS CREATIVES online literary magazine USA,, Prodigy , digital literary magazine USA etc.